Sally Clarke: The London restaurateur on cooking at home, Lucian Freud's eggs, and the ingredient chefs get wrong

'Entertaining isn't just about the food you put on the table'

Sally Clarke (David Sandison)

Will you be cooking Christmas dinner this year?

Normally I would but this year I'll be cooked for by British Airways. I'm off to Tokyo, I've always wanted to go. I fly on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, some sashimi would be nice. It will be the first non-turkey, non–goose Christmas in my life.

It's quite a decadent idea isn't it, going out for Christmas lunch and being done with it.

It is, but I think it's rather sad. Hotels have to stay open of course, but to have a restaurant open on Christmas Day… I don't know. I've always been proud of the fact that we've given staff Christmas and New Year's Eve off for 31 years. It's a time to be with friends and family and partners. It's a time to give something back having worked so hard for the year.

You started off cooking by preparing the Sunday roast, didn't you?

Yes. When I was 10 or 11, my mother would give me an Elizabeth David cookbook and say, this is what we have in the cupboard and I would do my best cobbling things together.

Do you think that's a good way to learn? Through repeating the basics?

It's not a bad way at all. A lot of home cooks will have a handful of dishes they are comfortable with. When you are entertaining people, it's not just about what you put on the table. It's about the welcome you give your guest at the door and the chair you've chosen for them to sit in and whether you have candles or not. If one can eliminate the anxiety of trying a new recipe then it bodes for a happier meal.

What are your go-to dinner dishes when you cook at home?

It's always something very simply. I'm not a vegetarian but I very much lean towards salad-y and vegetable-y things. My 16-year-old son is at boarding school but when he's home I try to do a balanced meal, something that he gets excited about. He likes his meat and fish. If I'm eating by myself, I'll maybe bring a burrata from the kitchen and if we have pomegranates or clementines on the menu, those will go home too.

You've said before you could live on crab, fennel and apricots alone. What's the one ingredient you can't stand?

Saffron is the one thing that I think a lot of chefs get wrong. When it's hardly there at all, I think it's fantastic. Its colour and flavour is unique. But too many chefs use it too heavily.

What's your guilty pleasure?

Probably some shop-bought chocolate from time to time. I could eat a whole bar of Green & Blacks, but that's hardly a guilty pleasure as it's such good quality. I'll say a bag of Minstrels. They have to be cold, though.

Lucian Freud used to come in often for breakfast. How does he like his eggs?

He had them scrambled, actually

Would he come in with his dog?

Oh, all the time. Ely, he was a whippet. Dogs are very welcome as long as they are well-behaved. We had a lady who brought in her parrot one night. She said it had been misbehaving and she said couldn't possibly leave it at home, so it came and sat with at the table.

You've had a hugely successful career. So, why are there not Sally Clarkes across the country?

I couldn't do that. I'm not that type of animal. Gordon Ramsay can do it brilliantly, Marcus Wareing can do it brilliantly, Jason Atherton can do it, Angela Hartnett can do it – I can't. I'm comfortable knowing that all my eggs are sort of in one basket. Our bread business is expanding. We've got one shop and we may do another next year. But in terms of the restaurant, we need to get better and better, not bigger and bigger.

Sally Clarke opened Clarke's in Notting Hill Gate in 1984 and quickly gained a reputation for her 'no-choice' set menus. Her cooking has always focussed on seasonal ingredients. She lives in Chelsea and has one son. Her cookbook '30 Ingredients' is out now